Will It Be Sunny Or Cloudy On Groundhog Day In Virginia?

VIRGINIA — Pennsylvania has Punxsutawney Phil to tell us if we’ll have six more weeks of winter. Here in Virginia, we celebrate the Feb. 2 Groundhog Day holiday on Friday with the prediction from Chesapeake Chuck, the Virginia Living Museum's resident groundhog in Hampton Roads, or Washington, D.C.'s Potomac Phil.

You know the drill on this tradition: if the animal meteorologist sees its shadow, brace yourself for another six weeks of winter. If not, spring is just around the corner.

In Northern Virginia on Friday, the National Weather Service calls for scattered showers before 11 a.m., then isolated showers after 2 p.m. Skies will be mostly cloudy, with a high near 49.

Two of the biggest DC-Baltimore observances include:

Dupont Festival at DuPont Circle Park in Washington, D.C., 8:30 a.m. Feb. 2. Potomac Phil, the National Groundhog, is ready to emerge within Dupont Circle and predict whether we're in for six more weeks of winter blues or an early springtime fiesta.

Baltimore Architecture Foundation Party @ the Pavilion, an evening of music, dancing, and drinks at the Light Street Pavilion at Harborplace, 7 to 10 p.m. Feb. 3

The Old Farmer’s Almanac spring forecast, released Friday, suggests Virginia will see a drier than normal weather in March as spring arrives early and warmer than normal.

• Related: Spring Arriving Early In Much Of The U.S., New Forecast Predicts

Groundhog Day predictions aren’t scientific, of course, just some pre-spring silliness to get your mind off blizzards, polar vortexes and such until spring officially arrives with the vernal equinox on March 19.

Enterprising Punxsutawney residents organized the first Groundhog Day celebration in 1887 around a tradition that early 19th-century settlers brought to Pennsylvania from Germany.

Clymer Freas, the editor of The Punxsutawney Spirit newspaper, came up with the idea in 1886 and convinced the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, a group of businessmen and groundhog hunters, that it was a solid one. They traded groundhogs for hedgehogs, the marmot used in the German celebration, but the idea behind the observance remains unchanged: If the varmint sees its shadow, more winter is in sight; if not, spring is near.

The earliest of Feb. 2 celebrations had nothing to do with groundhogs or hedgehogs. Today’s lighthearted festivals around marmots borrow heavily from the ancient European Christian celebration known as Candlemas Day, “commemorating the occasion when the Virgin Mary, in obedience to Jewish law, went to the Temple in Jerusalem both to be purified 40 days after the birth of her son, Jesus, and to present him to God as her firstborn (Luke 2:22–38),” according to Encyclopedia Britannica.

According to tradition, religious leaders blessed candles used during the winter and passed them out on Feb. 2, the midpoint between the winter solstice and spring equinox. If the candles were distributed under clear, sunny skies, the remainder of winter would be a rough ride. But if the day was gray and cloudy, spring was on the way.

Punxsutawney Phil was introduced at the inaugural U.S. Groundhog Day in 1887, and a groundhog has looked for its shadow every year under that name, sealing the “holiday” in America’s cultural heritage. A groundhog was pulled from the ground that first year and saw its shadow on Gobbler’s Knob. The prediction was right for a few regions of Pennsylvania, but not the entire state.